Isaac M. Yoakum was born around 1842 in Missouri to Adam and Martha Yoakum. His father was a farmer who owned $1,200 of real estate by 1850. The family moved to Fannin County, Texas, in the 1840s.
He enlisted in the Confederate army on October 2, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 11th Texas Cavalry. He was promoted to sergeant on May 8, 1862. In August 1862, he rejoiced at rumors that “Kentucky, Indianna Ilenois [and] Ohio have refused to furnish any more men for the Linchon Government and…that some of the Politicians of the North are making stump speaches against the War.” If the rumors were true, he predicted, “we will soon be allowed to return home in peace.” He was wounded in the Battle of Stones River, receiving a “flesh wound in the thigh” and a “spent ball in the shoulder.” He died of his wounds in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in January 1863.